Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - Rob Pelinka Gets Votes for Executive of the Year. Are You Feeling More Confident In Him?
Episode Date: May 7, 2025JJ Redick finished sixth in Coach of the Year voting, and now the guy who hired him matched it in Executive of the Year voting. Lakers GM Rob Pelinka had his highest finish since joining the team, af...ter a notable year that started with zero action in the summer (like, seriously, nothing) and finished with a significant trade for Dorian Finney-Smith and then the NBA-altering deal for Luka Dončić. So when you put it all together, did Pelinka deserve the recognition that came with the voting? (For the record, OKC's Sam Presti rightly won the thing.) Did he have a good year? How much credit does Pelinka deserve for the Dončić trade? And, critically, how much more confidence should Lakers fans have in him to do the very, very hard work of putting a championship team around Luka? Pelinka has been given two gifts - first in a generational superstar entering his prime - and second for the clarity that converting to a Luka-centric organization provides. But that doesn't mean building a winner will be easy. HOSTS: Andy and Brian KamenetzkySEGMENT 1: Pelinka gets some EotY love. SEGMENT 2: How good was Pelinka's season overall? SEGMENT 3: The Summer (for) Luka begins... and includes international play. Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Amazon Fire TV Stick 4kDid you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox? Turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices — no console required. Head to Amazon.com/firetvlockedon to get started. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required.BetterhelpThis episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. Your well-being is worth it. Visit BetterHelp.com/lockedonnba today to get 10% off your first month. UpworkVisit Upwork.comright now and post your job for free. With Upwork, you can find specialized freelancers in marketing, development, design, and more—experts ready to help you take your business to the next level. OpenPhoneStreamline and scale your customer communications with OpenPhone. Get 20% off your first 6 months at www.openphone.com/lockedonnbaDoor DashSign up for DashPass and when any player scores 50+ in a playoff game, DashPass members can grab a free 3PC Crispy Tenders Combo from Wingstop the next day, with a $20+ order and code WINGSTOP50. That’s DashPass: your door to more savings, more flavor, and more ways to win. Terms apply.Valid only at participating Wingstop locations. Fees (including service fee), taxes, and gratuity still apply. Orders must have a minimum subtotal of $20, excluding taxes and fees. Offer valid on 4/15/25-6/22 /25 or while supplies last. Valid for one (1) promotional redemption per customer. DoubleDash promotions apply only to your DoubleDash add-on order, not your primary order. DoubleDash orders are not valid for the purchase of alcohol. No cash value. Non-transferable. Discount applies to subtotal only; does not apply to fees, taxes, and gratuity. Not valid for pickup. Limit one per person. Not valid for the purchase of alcohol. Fees, taxes, and gratuity still apply. Must have an active DashPass account. Use promo code WINGSTOP50 to redeem. See full terms and conditions at drd.sh/qnAXuUMonarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelRight now, new customers can get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hey, everyone, welcome to Locked on Lakers for Wednesday.
Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, Rob Polinka, gets him some executive of the year, love.
And the summer for Luca begins.
That's next.
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Of course, Locked on Lakers on YouTube.
is where over 35,000 subscribers, Andy, are all hanging out and getting ready for what is going
to be a critical offseason of building around Luca Donchich.
It is the summer for Luca, not necessarily the summer of Luca, but definitely the summer
for him.
We're going to start getting into that.
But before we do, Andy, Rob Polinka, getting a little bit of love from his fellow
executives in the executive of the year voting like J.J. Reddick didn't win, but finished in that
sort of top group, even got a vote for first. Pretty impressive. It was actually pretty
serendipitous because they both finished sixth overall. So that, I guess, you could say they are
truly aligned. We've heard a lot heading into this offseason and at the beginning of the
JJ Reddick, Rob Polinka era that they were on the exact same page aligned.
So they're even getting the exact same amount of coach of the year or exec of the year voting and finish.
It's interesting.
Like you and I, I think it was a few weeks ago.
I don't remember how it came up, but we were talking about exec of the year.
Maybe it was on the heels of Rob Polinka getting his extension from the Lakers, the news of
breaking and you know the idea of whether rob polinka would ever win exec of the year and i said
then i still think now i think rob would have to do some of the best executive work imaginable
like for example sam presti is the actual winner and for my money he is i wouldn't say he's the
best exec in the league and i think the thunder are arguably the best
run organization in the NBA. I've thought that for a while. I think just in terms of what they
are able to continually accomplish, whether they are looking to contend, whether they are looking
to rebuild, and also working from the disadvantage of a small marketplace. I just think they're
exceptionally well-run, exceptionally smart. But Rob Polinka would have to do stuff that basically
Sam Presti wouldn't even dream of imaginable. I think.
think to win executive the year simply because from everything I've heard from multiple sources,
he is not particularly enjoyed by his peers.
No, especially now.
And I think stuff like that, it plays a role.
Yeah, because it's not a media voted award.
It's a colleagues voted award.
So, you know, Rob Polinka got one vote for executive the year.
there are a lot of people who are just assuming it was Nico Harrison who voted for him.
I don't know if that's true or not.
But I agree.
It's definitely not Nico Harrison.
He thinks Rob Polink is an idiot for taking on Luca Donchich.
Like that's the one guy we know didn't vote.
He got hoodwinked.
Yeah, no.
I mean, we know that Nico thinks anybody who gets in the Luca donchage business is a fool.
So.
Nico voted for himself.
I don't know who voted for Rob, but I damn sure.
no, it was not Nico.
And, you know, and I think there are two things there.
The first thing is, I agree with you, the personality thing matters.
I also think it's just really hard to win that award when you work for the Lakers.
You know, Sam Presti, I think Presti got it this year as sort of a cumulative
acknowledgement of the work that the Thunder have been doing over the past two or three seasons.
It's not so much that he was so outstanding this year relative to other seasons.
It's that the good work, though.
You did.
I mean, you know, it was all basically in the preseason.
The Thunder didn't do anything at the deadline or anything like that.
You know, they put that team together and won a lot of games.
And so I think there's just, it's sort of an acknowledgement of he's the best at this in the league and look at what they've done.
And I don't have a problem with it.
what I think is interesting about Rob is evaluating his season.
And we'll get into this in a lot of ways over the course of the summer,
but obviously the day the executive of the year voting comes out is a good day to talk about
like what kind of year Polinka had and how it was different or not different than other seasons.
And I think, you know, when you look at the idea that Rob would have finished in the top six for executive of the year in early October would have been laughable because the Lakers were coming off a fairly, I'm not to say disastrous off season, but a monumentally disappointing one in which they made no moves because they couldn't.
They were put in a box of Rob Polink is making.
And that kept them from making any improvements.
They didn't do anything stupid because couldn't do anything.
And so they go into the season.
The big change they make was JJ Reddick.
We were all sort of you and I were confident, thought it was a pretty good hire.
But obviously you have to wait and see.
They did try really hard to hire Dan Hurley from Yukon.
And I'm basically curious.
about Earth 2 where Dan Hurley took the job.
Sure.
And you and I in the moment,
neither of us were against the JJ Redick hiring,
but he was not either of our first choices.
I don't remember who was my first choice, David Adelman, I think.
Yes, David Adelman was yours.
Mike and Norrie was mine.
By the way,
Nuggets are making that look like a good choice.
So, I mean, I don't, I was,
I'd forgotten so much of that conversation.
But yeah, I think it was, if I had my druthers, as they say,
I would have picked Adelman.
And Redick was an extremely Lakers choice.
He was an extremely Rob Polinka type choice.
It didn't really get away from the Star-bleeper kind of problems that Lakers have had over the years.
Now, I think they read it correctly because Redick has turned into, I think, a good coach,
playoff issues notwithstanding.
He had a really good first season, I think.
Where Rob, so Rob, you know, they came off a bad trade deadline and a bad off
season where they sort of over, overpromised and underdelivered, and then got into the
season.
And I think that's where Rob did well, even setting aside the Lucas stuff, the DFS trade,
picking up Jordan Goodwin, things like that.
Drafting Dalton Connect, which I realized Dalton fell to them.
But as we saw in the previous year with Jalen Hood-Shafino,
you can either mis-evaluate a prospect or out-think the obvious.
And whether Rob Polinka was the driving force behind Dalton Connect,
or if it was Joey and Jesse Buss, the scouting department, whatever,
like all the things that happened under Rob Polinka's watch,
he either gets credit for or he gets dinged for.
That is the way this stuff works for all execs across the league.
And frankly, in sports.
He's the one who oversees it all,
so he's the one that ultimately takes responsibility for it all.
And Dalton Connect so far seems like a good pick for that slot.
Like I was thinking about and looking at the guys drafted around Connect.
And other than maybe Eve Mesey in New Orleans, there's nobody in his pretty close-
He had a nice rookie season.
Yeah, there's nobody in his immediate vicinity that I'm currently concerned might have been
a better pick than Dalton.
Not saying somebody else couldn't emerge it, but I'm saying right now, there's nobody
that looks immediately like they were better than Dalton.
Like all of these things happen under Rob Polinka, you know, he,
I think either Trey Jemison or Christian Coloco should have been converted for the playoffs.
So I guess that's why he didn't win exec of the year.
Right.
I will be fair to Rob.
Again, I am not 100% sure this was a Rob Polinka.
I get exactly what I want all the time.
I still believe until I'm told differently.
I'm not saying this is what it is.
It is my gut feeling that this was at least to some degree a financial choice.
And I could be wrong.
Possibly.
I hope I'm wrong.
But then again, I'm trying to be really careful when I talk about that.
Just because from a basketball standpoint, it's pretty obvious that you would want somebody who isn't Alex Lenn to be on the roster.
But I want to talk a little bit more about the season, the Luka part of this, like how much credit for as a GM should Rob get?
for that trade.
And then the broader question of like,
okay, we've got the sixth place guy and, you know,
executive of the year voting.
Like, are you more confident in Rob going into this summer than you were last summer?
That's next.
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So it's the question that's really, I think, intriguing is, you know, at least from a casual standpoint, you'd look at Robin's, well, he gets credit for, you know, he got Luca Donchich.
That is why he is way up there in the, you know, top six guys in terms of this awards voting this year.
You know, there's also the DFS for Delo trade, which was.
a really nicely crafted deal and all that stuff.
But when you think about the grade that Rob gets,
how much credit do you give him for the Luca acquisition?
I mean, in all honesty, I'd give him an A because apparently the only thing he needed to do
was keep his mouth shut and he did.
I mean, that Nico Harrison went to Rob Blinken, seemingly, you know,
not that they, it's, there are some conflicting reports about how many other teams
had been reached out to anything like that.
But it's very clear that the Lakers and Anthony Davis were one of the prime targets and prime calls for
Nico Harrison.
And one of the things that was very important in order to make this happen from Polinka's
perspective was keep your damn mouth shut, which he did.
Like, I'm not going to dock Rob Polinka points because he didn't.
not have to incept this idea.
Like, you know, that this wasn't his, his, the germ of his idea that he was the one
that got this thing started.
Like, I don't really care.
He didn't walk up to Nico and say, these aren't the droids you're looking for, basically,
and get, like, I mean, get Luca.
Like, it doesn't mean, I'm sure we'll get into this.
I'm not going to give him extra credit for it having happened.
And I'm not going to dock him because he didn't have to pull out a bunch of bells and whistles just to get this conversation with Nico.
Like it got started, how it got started.
And if you want to say that Rob happened to be the lucky guy who either had Anthony Davis on his team or had a preexisting relationship with Nico Harrison, whatever.
The guidelines were keep your damn mouth shut and he did.
And he clearly didn't give up too much in the process.
No, apparently, depending on, again, there's so much spinning in the wake of this deal where, you know, I think sort of the Laker side wants to make it look like Rob did even better work than he might have.
And the Dallas side wants to make it look like, okay, Niko wasn't quite the patsy that you think here.
You know, but like depending on the report, Rob actually talked, pulled back some assets in, in this deal.
Like, you know, you want us to give you all of that stuff for this distressed assets.
that you're trying so hard to get rid of.
I mean, geez.
And so, like, obviously, that's true.
Rob gets extra points for it.
But I got to be honest with it.
I'm not, it's similar to the AD part.
Trading for Anthony Davis was a good move.
It was the right move.
It was also not a complex move.
It was you keep sort of offering stuff until David Griffin says,
okay, that works.
And it was beginning.
because Anthony Davis was forcing his way to the Lakers and it was,
there was a lot of pressure from LeBron and Clutch get this done.
Correct.
Especially after magic bricked it the first time around.
Correct.
And so it's like you did it and all that.
And so you know, and it goes into your, your permanent record, so to speak.
But this for me is kind of the same way or the same thing.
The question now is how do you?
you do the hard work? The hard work is working in the restrictions that you have with the salary
cap and with the rules about the apron and the new CBA and all these other things, the lack of
draft capital that you have. And all this stuff. Rob is excited at working now in Apron World.
He expressed that during exit interviews a ton of, he predicted that this is going to be a busy
off-season. And the Lakers are going to be in the middle of it.
Apron,
apron world,
no more in terms of anxiety for writing.
Right. But he,
I remind you,
he talked about why didn't the Lakers make a,
a move at the deadline a couple seasons ago?
It's because they,
so,
you know,
we're going to keep our powder drive for the off season.
That's where we're going to be bold.
They did nothing in the off season.
And so,
you know,
this is now,
the hard work now is,
where, you know, is what they have in front of him, what Rob has in front of him.
Now you have to build a roster.
You know, there was a, Rich Paul made some headlines this week when, you know,
he's talked about how the Lakers weren't near a championship level team.
I mean, yeah, they got bounced in the first round in five games.
Like, yes, they were obviously not anywhere close.
And so you've got to bridge that gap going forward.
where Rob has an incredible gift because the job is really hard anyway now because all these guys have hard jobs.
It was borderline impossible with Anthony Davis and LeBron together because navigating that kind of timeline,
navigating the needs of these two guys and all this other stuff and the inconsistencies and, you know,
injury history, money, all that stuff going.
damn near impossible.
Now they've reset everything
where all they have to do
is build around the guy
that they went out to dinner with.
Was it over the weekend or on Monday?
It was on Friday.
They went to the hotspot Craigs in Los Angeles.
A place where people go because they want to be seen.
Very much so.
You raised a great question on Twitter about this meal.
If you're Luca,
do you order something really healthy
to impress
Rob and JJ at dinner?
or do you order like three pints of ice cream, you know, and and a tub of lard and just say,
what are you going to do about it?
Oh, I'm going decadent, but I'm making sure it's for the table.
Like everybody, these four orders of truffle fries and two chicken parmesan and three desserts,
like they're for everyone, like, you know, extra food.
And you make them eat it.
You may, I mean, it's personally insulted if you don't.
No, no, it's the opposite.
It's for the table.
but I'm the only one eating it.
Oh, maybe.
I just feel like, you know, there's a certain level of like I,
Rob doesn't strike me as a, you know, tub of bacon kind of guy.
Like, neither does JJ, to be honest with you.
But it's just, you know, they, all they have to do now is what matters,
what is best for Luca.
It's not about LeBron.
And I think LeBron is fine with that.
It's not about building, you know, a group that's going to maximize
the end of LeBron's career.
LeBron has to sort of figure out
how to work with the Luca roster
and he's LeBron James. It won't be a problem.
So the clarity
that JJ and now Rob have
is a gift. That is
in addition to Luca
himself is
the biggest gift of that trade
is clarity and they have none of it before
and they've got all of it now.
Rob said as much to me
when I asked him about that during the Luca Donchich introductory press conference,
just in terms of what it means to now have a player in the fold that gives you a runway
and a longer path to try to build.
And hopefully, if they can get Luca to sign an extension, which we're going to get into next,
that seems to be the consensus, don't worry about it.
But he basically described it as a gift.
And I guess to put a button on this in terms of, you know, what do I think of Rob
Polinka as an exec. If you're asking me if this season has convinced me that he's a great GM,
the answer is no. He's been too up and down over the course of his time with the Lakers.
The highs have been very high, but the lows have been at times inexplicably god awful.
This one year does not convince me that he's figured everything out. I'm not convinced that Rob is
necessarily outstanding at any part of being a GM other than consolidating power, which he is
awesome.
He's really good at keeping his job.
He is Game of Thrones level great at it.
You know, I am still of the mind that if a handful of execs around the league became
available, Jeannie should let Rob go now and pick one of them up despite the money that he's now
for an undisclosed amount of years.
And I could be saying next year that the heat should be on Rob Moore.
But if you are asking me if in the year 24, 25 beginning from offseason then to where we are now,
Rob Polinka did good work, my answer is yes.
I think this was a very good year for Rob Polinka.
Both things can be true.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
in the meantime, it's the summer of Luca, and for the Lakers, it's the summer for Luca.
We'll explain what we mean.
Next.
So at this dinner, Andy, the Lakers presumably talked about what we can do to make your life better,
Luca Donchurch, help us help you.
Give us the list.
What's the shopping list that you want?
It starts with a center, obviously.
least a lob threat, somebody who can get above the rim and score in that way.
He's not the only one.
Rui talked about wanting a center so he can stop playing it.
I think LeBron wants them to have a center so he can stop playing it.
They need probably more than one to come into camp next year.
It can't just be Jackson made.
I think we learned this season the danger of having one playable center.
I think it's like you.
I'm saying if you still count Jackson as a playable guy, at least in the
I am counting Jackson in this.
I think you need two in addition to Jackson.
Yes, exactly.
Where maybe Jackson becomes a third guy again.
That is pretty obvious.
I think it doesn't require Luca to spell that out for them.
But I think what the Lakers are going to continue doing,
is, you know, like, look, they're still in the honeymoon.
Not the honeymoon period.
There's still, to some degree, in a bit of a prove-it period.
Like, I think Luca, Luca has every incentive to sign a shorter deal, get to 10 years in the league,
and then sign something larger.
Like, financially, it makes sense for him to sign something a little bit shorter.
It also provides the Lakers with a little bit of flexibility because, you know, it's a year earlier
where he's going to be, you know, they have that.
extra year of cap, potential cap space and all that so they can build again.
But the Lakers, I think, need to keep doing things both from a roster standpoint, then behind
the scenes that make Luca feel comfortable.
They did a great job when they got him immediately bringing in all the dudes that Dallas let go
that are in Lucas inner circle that make him feel comfortable.
Stuff like that matters.
And Rob Polinka went out of his way to try to bring in the lob threat and the rim running
center that Luca likes with the Mark Williams deal.
You know, the physical came through and even with the Lakers knowing that Mark
Williams had injury history, there was a lot in there that they went, that spooked them
and made them rescind the deal.
I would like to think that it was about the medicals and not cold feet or changing their
mind at the last minute because that's the type of bad business that will prevent you
from getting exactly the year vote.
He's never going to finish sixth again if it gets out.
That's what they did.
But you know, Tim McMahon, for example, from ESPN, a friend of the show, the author of
the book, Wonder Boy about Luca Donchich, which we've said that before, I'll say it again.
Check it out because it's a really, really good look at Luca's career and how he kind of
became the guy that he is now.
But Tim McMahon said, go Google our interview.
You can find it on the channel here.
did an extensive interview with Tim about Luca that is worth great offseason.
Listen, if you missed it when we did it.
Absolutely.
But he was on, I want to say Dan Patrick's show and said that he would be shocked if
Luca didn't ultimately sign an extension with the Lakers.
Like you mentioned, the general expectation seems to be that he's going to do the
shortest term one that will allow him to reenter free agency at that 10-year service mark.
a potentially five-year $418 million extension down that road.
And also just as a reminder, because this is a critical offseason,
and Luca is obviously a big piece of this,
he cannot sign this extension before August 2nd.
Like, by CBA rule, he cannot do this.
So you're going to have to be patient on it because if Luca wants,
if Lucas made up his mind doesn't matter, he can't do it.
So everyone needs to know that.
Yeah.
So if you start to see the summer is long, people get bored and you'll start seeing things.
But he's not, I agree.
I would be absolutely shocked if he went anywhere.
And we talked about it this week in the context of LeBron.
Like, I can see why.
he, Luca wouldn't want to go anywhere because where LeBron the fit has always been and like,
man, I thought the, the comment section on Monday was sort of like a little bit like there was,
we asked sort of the question or, you know, more explicitly, our Lakers fans really ready to
move on from the LeBron era for Tuesday show. And it was like, people were aggressive. Like the people
who are, you know, in the yes camp on that are aggressive when it comes to LeBron. But Luca, the context
around Luca being a
Laker is so different.
And the city, the instant
embrace of Luca, the feeling
of, oh my God, how
lucky are we to have
this guy?
You know, like this, you know,
this was like just a gift
to the Lakers, to the
organization, to the fan base.
He is going to be a
wildly popular
person in this city for as long
as he chooses to be committed to the organization.
And I, for one, am excited about it.
One thing, though, that I know has people nervous is this notion of playing in the
off season.
There's so much focus on what kind of condition Luke is going to come back in and, you know,
playing himself into the best shape of his life and all this other stuff.
And a lot of fans get uncomfortable these days with international play.
Luca, there is a Eurobasket this offseason in August.
It's August into September, I believe.
Late August into early September.
Thank God because we need the content.
I know.
It's actually perfectly timed for us.
Oh, man.
A European tournament in like June and July during the draft and free agency,
that is a waste.
That does us no good.
I'm really open.
My hope is that Luca before signing an extension with the Lakers
plays in the big three.
Just because we need something, man.
We really do.
Congratulations, Luca, on your tour with the Harlem Globetrotters.
I mean, actually, I want LeBron to opt out, play in the big three.
Then he can opt into the original deal that he was going to have, again, just to help us kill July.
There's only so much mileage we can get out of Bronian summerlee.
It's like the lockout when we used to, you know, pray for somebody to show up.
play in the
you know, in the local
summer leagues in the Drew League and stuff.
So I,
you know, but like,
there will never,
this is just something that Lakers fans are going to have to get used to.
It doesn't matter what is happening.
Luca is injured at the end of the year.
He's exhausted.
The Lakers reach the finals, whatever.
If there is an international tournament,
Olympics,
qualifiers, whatever it is,
Luke is going to play.
And he's going to, you know, he will always play for Slovenia.
Yep.
And the poll there is monumentally important.
And it is different.
It is a different deal for Luca to, you know, the obligation he feels to play for Slovenia.
It's a different deal than like AD playing for Team USA or LeBron playing for Team USA.
But quite frankly, anybody playing for Team USA.
I mean, I don't want to necessarily say anybody because,
someone like Carmelo Anthony, for example, has clearly dedicated himself to what I mean by what I mean by
that is not a player's desire to play for his country, which I will never criticize. I know some guys
that he should rest. He should do this. It's going to get in the way of his gigantic NBA obligations or
whatever. I will never criticize a guy for playing for his country. What I mean by that is
Luke Carmelo playing for Team USA is different to Americans.
Not to Carmelo, but to Americans.
Okay, I see.
It matters less to America than then Luca playing for Slovenia.
Well, particularly for the average American NBA fan because we tend to be very
centric about our teams and like, look, just we care more about our NBA teams than
we do our international teams.
Right. And look, for our new.
Slovenian fans and audience, Zadravo, like just so you understand, we are always going to,
in some ways, prefer that any Laker doesn't play for, you know, Eurobasket or Olympics or
whatever, just because he can't hurt himself. You can't get hurt if you're not playing.
We are selfish that way. So just understand it's got nothing to do with Luca. It's got nothing
to do with the player themselves. We're just always thinking Lakers first. That being said, though,
I will say, other than the fear of injury, which can happen, obviously, just asked Paul George.
The idea of Luca Donchich at 26 in his prime, I'm not worried at all about wear and tear or adding mileage or something like.
Honestly, man, if this is a concern at 26, the Lakers are kind of effed anyway.
I mean, really.
This should not be a concern.
And the time, oh, sorry, go ahead.
I was going to say there's potential upside for Luca to have to maintain his basketball conditioning for essentially an entire summer.
Like, and given the concerns about Luca, I think there is a real potential upside to that.
Well, I think he's the timing of it, what I was just going to say is like the timing of it, we can quit after this and we'll talk more about it.
But like, and like, I would love like, leave us in the comments at, that.
brothers, Kahnanski Brothers at gmail.com on the YouTube page in the comments section, especially
for Lucas Slovenian fans.
We really want to learn more about the significance of some of these tournaments and things
like that.
I will tell you, I've not been a close follower of Eurobasket in the same way that I'm going
to be.
I don't even know what the hell Eurobasket is.
If I'm full transparency, it sounds made up.
Played up with European teams.
I think Slovenia is in the same group as Iceland, which I find kind of charming.
Shout out to Bjork.
Yeah.
And so, you know, I just, I think the timing of this actually could work out pretty well.
Because Luca, because the Lakers are out so early, he can take a month to recover, you know, get off his feet, let his body heal.
You start to get into the normal rehab work.
Then you start to get into, you know, by.
June, July, August, you're starting to really ramp things up.
Eurobasket kind of fits right into that flow.
And then Eurobasket ends in September.
Then you're really in that.
You're already in pretty good shape and you just carry that into training camp.
So like if it were, I'd be more concerned if Eurobasket for some reason happened in June,
where it's this huge ramp up and then you need to recover.
And then like, so I'm, I'm cool of timing.
These guys are playing basketball constantly anyway.
They're working out constantly anyway.
And so I don't have a problem with him doing that.
Kobe, I want to say it was his rookie year.
It was either his rookie year or heading into his first year with Phil Jackson,
but he heard his hand playing.
I think it was his rookie year.
Yeah, he heard his hand playing pickup basketball in Venice Beach.
So.
Although that was sort of done.
But to your point that guys play, they're playing all the time.
That's all I'm saying.
It was a very 18-year-old thing to be doing.
So, you know, we're excited.
But like, it's just, it's important to remember, like, Luca has,
feels, rightly feels an obligation to play for Slovenia in a way that I think most American stars
don't because they shouldn't.
There isn't the same level of obligation in a country like ours with a basketball history
like ours versus what
Luca is to Slovenian basketball.
You can't compare the things.
And I will not countenance, Andy,
the criticism of people saying he should put the Lakers first.
No, the guy's going to play for Slovenia.
He should.
And we all need to understand why.
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